Visualizing One Trillion Dollars

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It’s official, trillion is the new billion. No longer is government spending talked about in terms of a mere ten digits. With the recent flurry of government spending, we are going to need another three zeros to make sense of it all.
One trillion dollars; it’s a number that few people can comprehend, let alone your standard nine digit calculator. There have been attempts to put this number into perspective before. A trillion dollar bills laid end to end would reach the sun or you spend a dollar per second for 32,000 years or one trillion dollars in pennies would weigh as much as 2,755,778 Argentinosauruses (the largest known dinosaur). Fanciful as this may be, the real story behind one trillion dollars is in its economic impact. Let’s investigate what one trillion dollars can do.
For more personal finance visualizations see: WallStats.com
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Bob 369 days ago
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« Previous 1 2World Economic Situation and Prospects 2009, a United Nations report on the world economy, is saying that the whole Bretton Woods international banking system, set up in 1944, and including the World Bank and the IMF, is bankrupt. There is no way to repair it and we are working on a replacement sustainable global economic infrastructure.
The United Nations will be a multi-polar, global federation of nations, with a cooperative, rather than a competitive, economic philosophy. Our economy will serve all the people of earth, rather than serving a few people at the expense of everyone else.
Eye opening and frightening…and scary to think that less than 1/2 of the country put the man in office who is pushing us into this abandonment of all frugal reason. Who will pay this debt when the bill comes due?
Everyone has been betrayed on a colossal scale and we must defend ourselves by exiting all assets and hunkering into cash. We’ve been betrayed and lied to by bankers, politicians, military brass, and corporate chiefs. By the way, cash is prescribed in that perfectly crafted document called the US Constitution. Gold & silver are the only forms of money that can legally satisfy debts public and private.
My rational and considered belief is that gold, as well as crude oil, will be anchors to the next global reserve currencies. What better route to stabilize both financial and commercial price systems? The following article will give you a good idea of where we’re headed in this global calamity: http://www.goldnewswire.net/gold-the-panic-phase#gold
Wow, the bailout cost 10 trillion dollars?
Are there hate groups against bankers and accountants?
Well, there should be.
Should a trillion dollars be enough? How about three or more, depending on how you look at the bailouts being thrown around?
http://www.nationofcards.com/2009/03/19/a-trillion-visualized/
This is a great way to communicate the enormity of spending occurring right now. I will definitely use this on my blog to share with my readers! Thank you Mint blogging team for putting things into perspective!
Things in perspective. Really, mind blogging.Senate passed a bill taxing the bonuses. See my blog on the subject.
I still can’t comprehend this much money.
I think this is a rather poor way to describe this much money. I would rather understand it in terms of amount of physical labour – which is what it actually equates to. Not property.
I wonder if a trillion would be enough to gather up all the scoundrels behind this and shoot them off into space on a one-way ticket?
Sorry,people.It is too late,the die has been cast.No way to pay back the 15 trill debt that will be there in 2011 That will be a 1,000 mile high pile of 1,000 dollar bills.The gov;t would have to borrow heavily just to pay the interest on that.
So, move to a nice indian reserve and allow the people there to teach you how to live in a sustainable way. Do not come to canada because we are in even deeper sh–. No trade, no money.
We shall be chopping wood and chase polar bears. JVO
Sweet. Nice graphics. With the global interest waning fast in the greenback, pretty soon, $1 T US will only get you $1 T US.
i feel sick.
when whores and sons of whores run the country this is what u get!
Looks like China has a new found purpose for those 30 million men who will never marry due to their own social imbalance, Collectors of the Chinese loans to the US by way of the China Military.
My kids are going to be buried under that trillion extra debt, for that I can only hope to be the hell out of here by then…
One Trillion is enough socks for everyone in the world to wear a new pair everyday for 300 years
Wow. One Trillion dollars…. one billion dollars doesnt even sound like much anymore as well.
@keirs: That’s not a nice thing to say about our dear President Bush 43 (…who makes Herbert Hoover look like a genius). But I understand your frustration
The very need to count by trillions just shows how devalued the dollar has become. It also shows the real urgent need to drastically reduce the size of the U.S. government.
we are talking trillions here.
i have some obvious questions.
can we fit a trillion dollars in a 40ft container?
when and how the *world bank* or *IMF* shifts loans amounting to billions to worhty countries like us.
is it an electronic transaction only?
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/04/07/What-Does-a-Trillion-Dollars-Look-Like.aspx
If you started your business when Jesus was born, with an investment of One Trillion Dollars, and you lost One Million Dollars every day, 365 days a year, you would still be in business 730 years from now!!!
If you go to the TreasuryDirect website, you can see that the country’s Total Public Outstanding Debt is $10,759,016,081,652.99 !!!!!!!! That’s 10.7 Trillion dollars !!!! That amount would take 29,476 years to pay off if you paid $1million a day!!
O.K. Then what does 160 trillion look like, because thats what the American banks owe!
I guess after they destroy the dollar our 401K’s will be worthless. What dream are they going to sell us next. Bring it on I’m gulible. Congratulations J.P. & friends. Hope I don’t ruin it for you but God win’s. Ooops I told the end of the story.
What, what WHAT?!
Can anyone send me (or create) a trillion dollar bill with Obama’s head centerplaced? That is what he will be famous for.
Government should something to help peoples
It makes me want to get some of that bail-out money now.
Once again – an incredible visualization of what we spend/waste in the name of capitolism
I’m sorry to inform Gerold or anyone else who thinks this is capitalism. This is not capitalism. Capitalism let’s bad business fail, not prop them up. Capitalism isn’t TARP, it isn’t any of the stimulus spending. This is purley government going wild. As an american people, we have given up our liberties for security, and nobody seems to mind…UNTIL someone puts it into perspective. And THEN, someone like Gerold goes right back and BLAMES CAPITALISM??? on the mess that we are in. Wake up America! PLEASE!!!
Well, there should be.
The distance around the world at the equator is about 132 million feet. That is equivalent to 264 million $1 bills laid end to end. Are you ready for this: One trillion dollars is equivalent to 380 ONE MILLION DOLLAR BILLS laid end to end around the world. When will our government understand?
Opps – 264 MILLION ONE MILLION DOLLAR BILLS is ONE TRILLION
1 trillion dollars is about 1 trillion beer cans or about 320 beer cans for every adult on earth, or one big hangover every 2 weeks for all adults on the planet.
I find if so funny that we are in debt 7 times this amount, maybe even more. Not funny – sad.
Unfortunitely I think people are all suffering from diminished capacity these day’s.
The almighty dollar has not been backed up for decades! (Federal Reserve Note).
U.S.A. is no longer a financial institution.
The only thing we have going for us is fire power. I compare it to a big strong man that owes a weaker man, If the big man doesn’t payback (Oh Well, Tough luck).
Frightening. In 1996 there was approximately $700 in circulation for every ounce of gold in the US reserve, today there is approximately $11000 and growing. The US government is producing money “as it needs it”. That is like using your Visa card to pay your Master card. It has to end somewhere. Wylie